Lionel Richie learned two valuable lessons as the final act of the 2014 Essence Festival. First, Sunday night at Essence is not, to quote his own lyrics, easy like Sunday morning. Folks are tired. On Monday, they must go back to work, or travel back to wherever they're from. If you don't grab them early, they're gone. Just ask Earth Wind & Fire, who found out the hard way in 2010.

The second lesson imparted on Richie at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome? It's tough to follow Charlie Wilson.

Wilson, the former Gap Band singer turned contemporary R&B star, is a latter-day Essence favorite. He knows how to pick up the Essence audience and take it along for a ride. During his penultimate set on Sunday, Uncle Charlie brought the crowd to the dance floor, to the bedroom and to church. His musicians looked sharp in matching charcoal suits with red shirts and shoes, and bright lime green socks, suspenders, shoelaces and bowties. Midway through, Wilson and his four female dancers rocked jackets and fedoras ablaze with LED lights.

Wilson's show was three-dimensional: Looked great, sounded great, felt great. The slick suits and props – two dancers deployed towering angel wings at one point – enhanced his natural charisma, as he alternately clowned and crooned. The emotion felt real.

Richie's show, polished as it was, was far more straight-forward. After Wilson, it felt flat.

But this time, the odds were stacked against him. And he did himself no favors with a show that took way too long to reach a boil.

He front-loaded the set list with ballads and lesser songs from his catalog of Commodores and solo hits. He was especially chatty, with long set-ups and jokes. He announced his intention to explain how and why he wrote several songs. Turns out he stole "Three Times a Lady" from a toast his father gave in honor of his mother. "This story is interesting," he said, introducing another ballad.

Not at midnight on Essence Sunday, it isn't. Soon, the aisles on the floor turned into rivers of people bound for the exits.

Lionel Richie sang to a lot of empty seats late in his 2014 Essence Festival closing set at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Sunday, July 6, 2014.Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

People stood and cheered when he implied Diana Ross would reprise their duet on "Endless Love." "I invited my dear friend Diana Ross to join me at Essence Fest," he shouted, as the Dome came to life. "Can you join us, Diana?"

Audible groans. Instead of the real Ross, Richie said, there were "65,000 Diana Rosses right here at the Essence Festival."

His math was more than a little off: The Superdome is configured for a capacity of just under 50,000 at Essence. Only Prince on Friday filled it; Sunday's crowd was the smallest of the festival's three main nights.

And as Richie went on, it was emptying fast.

Which is a shame, because he sounded fine, if a bit rote. His band is essentially a rock band that replicates the hits meticulously while goosing the likes of "Running With the Night" with beefed-up guitar solos. A run of Commodores favorites culminated in a celebratory "Lady (You Bring Me Up)," the highlight of the show.

But it wasn't enough to stem the tide flowing out into the streets. Richie is a consummate pro. He makes big money playing corporate gigs, an oft-thankless task. Sometimes, you've got to just keep smiling and plow through. Which he did, through "Zoom," "Brick House" and "Hello," despite looking out at ever-growing swaths of empty real estate whenever the spotlights scanned the bleachers.

By the time he arrived at "All Night Long" at 12:45 a.m. – it was as polished and professional as everything else -- the only sizable crowd in the Dome was clustered directly in front of the stage. The back sections of the floor, as well as the bleachers in the plaza, loge and terrace levels, were empty save a smattering of diehards.

There was no encore. There wasn't a quorum to call for one.

Keith Spera can be reached at kspera@nola.com or 504.826.3470. Follow him on Twitter @KeithSpera.